Counting from Zero (9 page)

“Yep, and he wants to know why I haven’t reciprocated yet…
 
Dude – I’ve been railing on him to my friends since I started on the job.
 
If he reads my posts, I’m doomed!
 
Epic FAIL!” His head fell to the table again.

“Which social network?” Mick asked.
 
He grimaced when he heard the answer.
 
“So you’ve tried deleting the posts?”

“Yes, but some are comments on other posts and I just can’t get rid of them all.
 
I can’t believe he thinks he can do this – he just doesn’t get it!”

Mick agreed with him.
 
He was well aware of how the intersection between social networking and the workplace was fraught with issues and pitfalls, and the etiquette for resolving these kinds of issues just wasn’t there yet.

“I can help you…” Mick began.

“You can make them disappear?”
 
For the first time, the youngster showed some signs of life.

“Yes, but I can’t just delete them.
 
You’ll need to lose some other posts, too.
 
I can make it look like database corruption in your account.”

“Cool!
 
But how?”

“I just need a prepaid wireless data card, and about twenty minutes to write a script.
 
Here’s what I need…” Mick detailed what he needed, and sent the youngster, named Seth, off to buy one from a store around the corner – with cash, Mick had warned him.
 
He hurried off eagerly, while Mick set to work.

In a few minutes, Mick had a script ready to extract and list all Seth’s comments.
 
Then, he wrote another script that generated database exceptions inside the social network that would result in the comments being deleted.
 
At least he was pretty sure it would – he had never actually done this before, but the concept was sound in theory.

Seth returned and Mick accessed the Internet using the prepaid device and ran the script.

“
That
’s
them
!” Seth shouted, when the posts started scrolling across the screen.
 
Mick selected them.
 
The script then took care of them: they were all gone.

“Sweet! I can’t believe you did that!” Seth said as Mick deleted the script, removed the wireless card, broke it,
then
threw it in the trash.
 
He knew he was being overly cautious, but he did not want anything that could connect him to this little piece of hacking.

“Maybe you’ll be a little more careful in the future?” he asked, getting up to go.

“Yeah, I definitely will… Hey, I don’t even know your name –” he began.
 
Mick put up his hands.

“It’s better that way.
 
Good luck to you Seth!” Mick replied and walked out of the coffee shop, deciding not to come back to this one again.

He had written to Gunter telling him about the conference, and received a reply a little later:

Mick,

You are most welcome about Seattle – I am glad it worked out for you.

Good luck with the LeydenTech job – sounds really interesting.
 
Ride safely in NM.

Keep in touch, old friend.
 
With luck I’ll see you in Vegas...
 
Yeah, baby!

GS

------BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

wgGnrdZfSZu9Tw5BHbYwFpQCrqir5d

kSbO5lxZOuuMeFGxQgpPZ2GQlhdTRB

W9ZCQfhp7MA===vRZQhQEMA1/E8ja5

Z9JuAQf+McLh6QFG1Q8fJxbF/QbR9b

wJufkLPRlPJ7G3
+AJbdzphrqIbxmlE

-------END PGP SIGNATURE------

Flying out of Seattle the following afternoon, Mick got an amazing look at the dormant volcano of Mt. Rainier, with the not-so dormant Mt. St. Helens smoldering in the distance.
 
A few minutes later, the plane banked and he got a clear view of the Columbia River.
 
He noticed what looked like a power plant near a hook-shaped bend in the river.
 
Mick realized it was probably the Hanford Site, where the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor was built, and where the plutonium for the atomic bomb tests and the Nagasaki bomb were produced.
 
Another piece of the puzzle of the atomic zero day attack.

 
Chapter 9.

From the
Security and Other Lies
Blog:

Why do programmers use strange number formats such as hexadecimal?
 
Just to be different?
raptorzhavemorfun

Humans like decimal numbers.
 
Computers like binary numbers.
 
Computer programmers who bridge these two worlds often use hexadecimal numbers because they are sort of a compromise.
 
Let me explain:

Computers, in their hardware, exclusively use binary numbers, also known as base 2 numbers.
 
Each digit is either a 1 or a Ø, and every place represents a power of 2.
 
This is because the storage and manipulation of numbers in binary form is very easy.
 
For example, in a memory storage device, the presence of a voltage (such as 3.3V) can represent a 1 while the absence of a voltage (ØV or ground) can represent a Ø.
 
A single binary digit is known as a 'bit'.
 
If you have 8 bits of binary information, you can represent numbers from ØØØØØØØØ to 11111111 or Ø to 255 in decimal form.
 
8 bits are also known as a 'byte', or an octet, a set of 8.
 
(Note that 'byte' is a deliberate misspelling, since ‘bite’ is too similar to ‘bit’.)
 
A byte is the basic unit of information in a computer, or in larger units as MB (Mega bytes or millions of bytes) or GB (Giga bytes or billions of bytes).

Now binary numbers aren’t very friendly to work with for humans, but hexadecimal, or base 16, is a more convenient form.
 
Hexadecimal uses Ø-9 then A-F as the 16 values.
 
For example,
the number 1Ø in decimal is represented by A
in hexadecimal.
 
Each byte is represented by two hexadecimal digits, making it convenient for computer programmers to use
.
 
The 8 bits of information in a byte represent the range of ØØ to FF in hexadecimal.

As another example, in decimal, there is no real distinction between the numbers 255 and 256.
 
However, to a computer, there is a big difference.
 
The value 255 can be represented within a byte – that is, by 8 bits
- while 256 can’t be represented with a byte – it requires at least 9 bits.
 
The values of FF and 1ØØ
 
(which are 255 and 256 in hexadecimal) make this obvious (at least to a computer programmer).

I should also point out the programmers also typically begin counting from zero, instead of starting at one like normal people.
 
This is partly due to the use of binary numbers and the need to make the most of a limited number of bits.
 
However, it is also due to programmers frequently using offset pointers in strings or series of data.
 
For example, the string ‘zero’ has four characters or letters.
 
We might say that ‘z’ is the first character; ‘e’ is the second character, etc.
 
However, if the characters are referenced as an offset from the start, then ‘z’ is zero characters offset from the start; ‘e’ is one character offset from the start, etc.
 
So the character offset would start at Ø and go up to 3 for a string of 4 characters.

Now that I have thought about it,
raptorzhavemorfun
, I’m starting to lean more towards your ‘just to be different’ explanation…

-> Your question not answered this week?
 
Argue for your vote on the Shameless Plugging area of our discussion forum.

Chapter A.

Mick O'Malley
– tries to remember to be careful of what information he shares on social networks, which is kind of a strange thought to share on a social network.
 
(8 comments)

Early the next week, Mick was riding north on Highway 25 in New Mexico towards Santa Fe, enjoying the wind pressure on his body and the sun on his back.
 
After only a few days back in New York, he was about to begin his consulting job.

From the Albuquerque airport, he had taken a short cab ride to a tumbledown motorcycle store on the outskirts of the city.
 
One of his own Ducati motorcycles shipped from his workshop in New York had arrived at a local motorcycle shop the previous day.
 
It had been uncrated, and was ready for him to ride.
 
For the duration of his visit to New Mexico, he had his bright yellow 1974 Scrambler 45Ø to ride.
 
He had chosen the Scrambler since it was a dual sport bike, with combination road/dirt tires that enabled it to be ridden both on road and off road.
 
Mick had an idea he could find some desert trails to ride on.

Mick would often make arrangements to have one of his motorcycles crated up and shipped to a part of the country where he planned to spend a week or more.
 
He could then enjoy riding it all week then have it shipped back to his workshop.
 
There were advantages
to
 
owning
seven motorcycles… and being independently wealthy.

The scenery was a big change from his usual, with New Mexico offering hills, mesas, and desert all around.
 
Just over an hour later he stopped outside Santa Fe to fuel up his bike and himself.
 
Back on the highway, he continued north until his westward turnoff to Los Alamos.
 
Despite the scenery and the ride, his thoughts kept drifting back to the recent attacks.
 
In the last two weeks, two of his servers had been successfully compromised… perhaps it was time to increase his vigilance?

On the smaller highway, he headed towards Los Alamos, following the sun as it receded in the sky.
 
Approaching Los Alamos, Mick was amazed by the sight of the cliffs of the high mesas making it look more like a fortress than a city.
 
He rode towards the small inn on the northern side of the city where he had his reservation.
 
He drove a few extra kilometers around the outskirts of town, going past the offices of LeydenTech, and, as the sun
set,
he reluctantly pulled into the inn and parked his motorcycle.
 
The Scrambler had run beautifully for him.

At a civilized hour the next morning, he sat down with Vince at LeydenTech, having breakfast and coffee and meeting the security team.
 
Vince performed the introductions to Will and Anil who worked in the LeydenTech IT security group.
 
Mick had switched off his mobile in the morning, since mobile phones did not work inside the LeydenTech office.
 
Vince had told him the building was effectively a Faraday cage – a shield blocking all external electromagnetic radiation, making all wireless devices useless inside.
 
He wondered if this was a deliberate security precaution, or just a byproduct of the building’s construction.

“You really did a great job with that web server attack the other week!” Will, the manager, exclaimed as they sipped lattes.